Posts Tagged With: Corn

I love grilling fresh summer vegetables. One of my recent favorites is grilled shallots. Grilling brings out the sweetness in these normally mild, onion-like root vegetable. Grilled tomatoes and grilled corn are also two of my favorites vegetables on the barbie. Here, I tossed them all together.

Grilling tomatoes and shallots: First, peel the shallots and chop them in halves. Toss shallots and cherry tomatoes in olive oil and either dried herbs or sprigs of fresh herbs, such as oregano, thyme or rosemary. To grill them, we have a grill wok that is great for small vegetables. But if you don’t have one of those, you can use tin foil. Grill for a few minutes, until browning and juicy.

Grilled corn: Pull back the leaves (without cutting them off), tears out the strings, then soaks them for an hour in water. Then grill them straight on the grill. Grill them for about 15 minutes, turning it every few minutes.

I’ve always loved Mexican-style food, so this is a favorite of mine. As I have mentioned, we eat a lot of soups and stews in the winter. Enchiladas are a nice, savory break from that. I made this on a week night and got home late from work, so I was in such a hurry to make it that I forgot to take many pictures. It is based on this recipe from Fatfree Vegan blog. Despite the fact that I was running late that evening, I decided to be ambitious and saute some onion and corn with cumin, chili powder and a dash of cinnamon and include that in the stuffing, too.

One thing I love about this recipe is the instruction for making the enchilada sauce. Many store-bought sauces are highly processed and often not vegan. For this one, I combine hot water w/veg boullion powder, cornstarch, and green salsa. Works just as well as store-bought sauce, in my opinion!

The sweet potatoes, which I steam instead of boil, add the soft, creamy texture that you usually get from cheese. Occasionally I’ll add Daiya non-dairy (and soy-free) cheese on top, but not on a regular basis. That’s because it is a processed food (as are other dairy-based cheeses too) and I try to minimize those from my diet. Once I got used to not eating cheese at all, I don’t feel the need to regularly replace it with dairy cheese substitutes. I will, of course, make or buy and eat non-dairy cheeses and cheese sauces as a special treat.

Prep time took about 25 minutes (because I was ambitious with the onion and had to wait for the sweet potatoes to soften), and 20 minutes in the oven. Makes 3-4 servings.